Response Dynamics of the Frequency Comb Output from a Femtosecond Fiber Laser

Published

December 26, 2005

Author(s)

Brian Washburn, William C. Swann, Nathan R. Newbury

Abstract

The frequency comb from a mode-locked fiber laser can be stabilized through feedback to the pump power. An understanding of the mechanisms and bandwidth governing this feedback is of practical importance for frequency comb design and of basic interest since it provides insight into the rich nonlinear laser dynamics. We compare experimental measurements of the response of a fiber-laser frequency comb to theory. The laser response to a pump-power change follows that of a simple lowpass filter with a time constant set by the gain relaxation time and the system-dependent nonlinear loss. Five different effects contribute to the magnitude of the response of the frequency comb spacing and offset frequency but the dominant effects are from the resonant contribution to the group velocity and intensity-dependent spectral shifts. The origins of the intensity-dependent spectral shifts are explained in terms of the laser parameters.

Citation

Optics Express

Volume

13

Issue

26

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

lasers, fiber, metrological instrumentation, nonlinear optics, fibers

Citation

Washburn, B. , Swann, W. and Newbury, N. (2005), Response Dynamics of the Frequency Comb Output from a Femtosecond Fiber Laser, Optics Express, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=32037 (Accessed October 27, 2025)